May 2025

Hamburg

Dancers revolt against new director Demis Volpi – toxic climate, broken trust, old patterns

There is a lot of trouble surrounding the new ballet director at the Hamburg Ballet, choreographer Demis Volpi, who succeeded John Neumeier after 51 years in office. The main allegations are a toxic working atmosphere, poor craftsmanship and a communicative disaster. More than thirty dancers (over half the company) are said to have signed an alert letter to Hamburg's Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda; published versions include the names of Alexandr Trusch, Madoka Sugai, Alessandro Frola and Christopher Evans, who resigned from their leading positions at the helm of the ensemble in early April. In the meantime, dancers from Volpi's former company, the Ballett am Rhein, have stepped in to assist their Hamburg colleagues. In a letter to Brosda they assure that Volpi made more or less the same mistakes in Düsseldorf and Duisburg and has not been a good leader either. Why this is only now becoming known is one of the questions that arise in this context. Volpi himself is in the middle of rehearsals for his first full-length creation Demian, which is due to be released on 6 July. He denies the allegations.